Stone the Preacher

What do you do when you run into a person who has asked “Jesus into his heart” but still leads the life of Hitler?

How should a Christian respond to someone who says that they were born again at age three, but their photo is on the post office wall?

How can a believer appropriately deal with a “cursing like a sailor,” yet “Spirit filled, sealed by the blood” follower who also owns a strip joint?

Simple. Don’t assume that they are believers.

Most likely they are false converts who believed that all they had to do was pray a “simple prayer” without any repentance. Or possibly, some well-intentioned disciples surrounded the poor pagan and “made” him “accept the Savior.” (more…)

A few months back I posted a picture of the prize (see it up close here) that the top kid evangelist would win if they scored the most points in my Kid Evangelism class. All they had to do was hand out one Gospel tract a day, then write one paragraph about each experience. The winner, Cherish, never missed a day, completely blowing away the competition.

She is now now enrolled in my adult class (along with her whole family), and has her eyes on a new prize: a hand-carved, hand-inscribed Ten Commandments plaque.

Congratulations, Cherish!

In addition to learning about evangelism, the kids  get to rehearse and perform a little humorous skit dealing in some way with the Christian life. Here’s a skit called “Mrs. No” that Cherish was in. Feel free to use it for your own kids’ evangelism class.

  Mrs. No

Cast: Angel #1, Angel #2, Mrs. No, Homeless Girl, Old lady,
Muslim Man, Ex-convict, Louie the new Christian

(The skit starts out with a lady sitting in the middle of the stage on a stool. Two angels stand stage right and observe Mrs. No.)

Angel #1: Who’s that lady?

Angel #2: Shhh… You’ll disturb her.

#1: Well, who is she?

#2: She’s your average Christian and she doesn’t want anybody to bother her. We call her Mrs. No. She’s having her own time with God. (more…)

If you haven’t yet read my article on how to evangelize at your local Christmas parade (and all parades), may I encourage you to do so now by clicking here?

At the Hollywood Christmas Parade we attended last weekend I got some Gospel tracts into the hands of some major B-list celebrities… and the pictures to prove it. But you’ll have to tune in next week to see them.

By getting the Gospel into the hands of the right celebrity, they might read the message, repent, and use their God-given celebrity to spread the Gospel like… Kirk Cameron!

My friend Mark Spence  gave a gospel tract to George Clooney while leaving Jerry’s Famous deli a few days ago. Here’s his cell phone pic.

Who knows what might happen? Nothing is impossible with God!

These days parents are wary of what their kids get in Halloween bags, especially if it’s something Christian. If it’s suspect, like loosely wrapped homemade brownies given by the hippie commune down the street, or a bloody Jesus tract, it gets thrown away. But here’s a novel idea: The Cootie Catcher from EvangelismStuff.com.

You remember those Cootie Catchers don’t you? Little boys and girls everywhere would write out their fortunes and whatever came up, that was their future, like having to marry little snot-nosed Billy, etc. On this sanctified version every “fortune” that kids (or parents) read gives a very clear—and scary—Gospel presentation.

Here’s the “fortune” under the symbols for “road” and “heart” on the Cootie Catcher:

Did you get road or heart?

The latest data available shows that the 7th leading cause of death in the United States is motor vehicle accidents… in other words, dying on the road in an auto accident. The road symbol is there to remind you that every 12 minutes someone dies in a car accident, and the next time you get in your car you may actually be climbing into your coffin. The heart symbol reminds us that statistically heart failure or disease is the number one cause of death. So why are we talking about death? Because it is the ultimate statistic: 10 out of 10 people die. And the Bible says that after death you will face God’s judgment.

Most people don’t think about it much. They figure that since they live a good life they will probably go to Heaven when they die. The way to find out if that is true is to judge yourself according to God’s standards, the 10 Commandments. Have you ever lied, stolen, or used God’s name in vain? If you have that makes you a “liar,” a “thief” and a “blaphemer.” If you’re guilty you will be condemned to Hell. But God sent Jesus to take your punishment for you. Repent and trust in Christ, and you will be saved.

This Cootie Catcher really puts the “Hell” back in Helloween! Click here to get the free download.

A little over three years ago, our church, with permission from The Way of the Master, printed up 2,500,000 million dollar bill Gospel tracts. During a recent inventory I’ve discovered that we have less than 750,000 left.

A little over two years ago we printed 206,000 Giant Hundred Dollar Bill Gospel tracts and now we have less than 39,000.

On occasion I am asked, “What results have you seen?”

Fair question.

Frankly, we have not seen a huge increase in attendance or new members at Hope Chapel despite the fact that we have handed out close to 3 million tracts (and these include our homemade tracts, too) over the last four years.

But we don’t worry about it. Why? We’re not responsible for the results. Nope. God is.

The Apostle Paul wrote, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.” (1 Corinthians 3:6-8)

For that matter, I’ve rarely seen people repent after I’ve preached a sermon in the open air; and even those I’ve prayed for to receive Christ haven’t ended up in the pews. Yet.

And I’ve been sharing my faith nearly everyday since January 1, 2004!

As a CEO of a company I’d have been fired years ago…. What’s the point then?

GOD!

It’s all about faith in what He will do. I’m nothing.

Evangelists are no-thing. We water and plant the seed but God…God! causes it to grow.

I just want to be faithful and follow my marching orders: We walk by faith and not by sight.

Talk about frustrating!

The item created quite a stir: a prize to be coveted.

Who would win it? Where would they put it? How long before a parent tossed it in the trash?

I teach an evangelism/drama class for 8-13 year-olds at my church and the homework is to hand out one tract a day for the duration of the class. Also, I write a little humorous evangelism-oriented script for them to act out in front of the parents which they perform on the last day of class. The purpose of this class is two-fold: Obviously, I want the children to develop a zeal for the lost; I also want their parents to follow the children’s example. When the skit is performed, the audience gets to hear a clear presentation of the use of the Law and Gospel in a witnessing encounter.

Back to the prize. As an added incentive, each time the kids write a paragraph about their experience handing out a tract, they get points, which earns them candy. The top of the class wins this awesome, beautiful, majestic, Grand Prize Trophy:

 Eat your heart out, folks!

Here’s a sample script. Feel free to use this for your own kid-evangelism class. Email me if you would like my other scripts.

Eternity & Your Friends

Cast of characters:

Chris and Jamey are Christian kids.

Allen and Joey are obnoxious boys

Sally and Billy are two very good girls

 Chris: “How are all of you doing?”

Jamey: Yeah, how’s it goin’ you guys? (more…)

When giving out tracts the law of averages means that with every rejection you are getting closer to being accepted, and it indicates that you are doing something to reach the lost. One sure way to get no rejections is to do nothing to reach the lost. No one will reject you, and one sure way to get rejections is to try to reach the lost.

So I changed my attitude recently and when my first rejection came, I was expecting it. Instead of it being like a sword through my sensitive little heart, I said, “Great. Thanks!” and thought, “There’s the first one… I was expecting it.” The experience made me laugh. —From the Living Waters Newsletter, September 1, 2009

I sent in my totals for The Way of the Master contest, “Rejection Collection,” where you count the amount of tracts handed out and keep track of the rejections between the period of September1 through September 10, and figure out the percentage of rejections.

Here are my results: I handed out 1640 tracts and received 414 refusals for a 25.24% rejection rate.

This is a free download of a very popular—and fun—Gospel tract! We adapted the “I. Q. test” which we usually use on a clipboard, and placed it in a tri-fold tract with plenty of get-away time.

People really have a great time answering the fun “gotcha” questions…

…and they really don’t even know that it has anything to do with God until they open up the third fold because all the church information is hidden inside. (We left it blank so you can put in your own church info.) 

Click here to print it out. Then take it to Kinko’s and make a thousand!

Evangelism has never been so much fun!!! O Boy!

R. A. Torrey (1856-1928) wrote this in his article “The Use of Tracts”: Never be ashamed of distributing tracts. Many people hand out tracts to others as if they were ashamed of what they were doing. People are not likely to read tracts if you hand them to themas if you were ashamed to do it; but if you act as though you were conferring a favor upon them, and giving them something worth reading, they will read your tract. It is often well to say to a person, “Here is a little leaflet out of which I have gotten a good deal of good. I would like to have you read it.”

Do you want to ensure that your little ones remain in the faith and continue to share theirs as well? Then bring them along with you when you go on your evangelism adventures—and give them an incentive to do so.

My girls, D.D. and Laurel, have been going out with me for at least three years and they are bold and unafraid, earning the nicknames, Little Badger and Little Beaver respectively.

At the recent Michael Jackson Memorial at the Staples Center, D.D. badgered me to get her some Michael memorabilia. “If you hand out 800 Gospel tracts,” I challenged. Guess what happened?

My daughter went to the funeral for the “King of Pop” and all Dad got her was a lousy T-shirt.

And a memory that will last forever.

***Watch my two interviews with “Michael Jackson” here and here.***

A friend at The Way of the Master knew we were heading to the BIG Memorial service at the STAPLES Center on Tuesday and wanted us to “test drive” these brand new Million Dollar Bill Gospel tracts before they hit the market.

The very talented graphics artist, Dale Jackson, designed the tract. (He also made my Stone The Preacher banner.)

 
I tried to get a ticket to get into the Memorial, but this is what I found in my email this morning from the Staples Center:

Thank you for your registration.

Sorry, we regret to inform you that your registration to attend the Public Memorial Service… was not selected.

Hundreds of thousands registered, but only a few can be in attendance.

Since we can’t attend the actual event, we are very excited to be able to bless the many fans with something substantial and eternal—something to ease their disappointment—when they actually realize that they won’t be able to get anywhere near the Staples Center. (The area in red on the map show the street closings and police presence expected.)

Tough gig! But we have plan….

Please pray for us that God would open a door to reach many of these fans on Tuesday. By using these new commemorative tracts, sharing the gospel should be as simple as ABC, easy as 1 2 3!

Look for these tracts at LivingWaters.com in the next week!

More Memory Lane
(You must watch both of the videos, trust me)
Click here for #1
Click here for #2